The WSOP 3-Bet is a three-course meal at the late night poker news kitchen.

Like an unstoppable juggernaut the 2012 WSOP started slow but is beginning to gain momentum with a total of three ongoing events currently being hosted at the Rio.

After an early setback our live update team shifted into overdrive in the late stages of the day with featured updates from the $3k Heads-Up event.

Today in the WSOP three-bet we’re highlighting a Blackjack Dealer striking WSOP gold, a couple speed bumps for the $3k Heads-Up PLO/HA event and a Twitter flame war between two online poker pros.

1) Blackjack Dealer Collects First 2012 WSOP Bracelet

We’ve always thought it a little odd that the WSOP opts to start the world’s most prestigious poker series with the Casino Employees’ event.

You could probably argue that it’s their way of giving back to the poker community but it’s still a bit anticlimactic when people have been waiting for over a year to play for a bracelet and the majority are ineligible to play the first event.

Regardless California-based Blackjack Dealer Chiab “Chip” Saechao outlasted 732 players to take down a first-place prize of $70,859 late last night.

It was the first time Saechao cashed in a major tournament and his first time competing in the Casino Employees’ Event.

Second place went to Patricia Baker, who nearly became one of the few females to win a bracelet in a non-ladies event.

Saechao was very excited about his victory, which is always nice to see.

“I plan to wear it and show it off,” he said about his new bracelet. “Not too many can come over here to Las Vegas and go back home with this.”

One down, 60 more to go.

Annette Obrestad

2) $3k Heads-Up HA HA

The first day of the $3,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha event could have gone better.

First of all the event had a cap of 512 players and only 318 players showed up. That led to 60-odd players earning byes to the second round.

Byes are not unusual in heads-up tournaments but the amount in this event was.

It’s obviously a pretty huge advantage going directly to the second round and it must have been at least mildly frustrating for the players who actually had to play in Round 1.

One of the more amusing incidents of the day saw Eugene Katchalov get his opponent down to 2,000 chips to Katchalov’s 16,000 before the tournament directors walked over and informed both players they actually had a bye into the second round.

Our live update team was also unable to cover only female players as we originally intended thanks to the fact that only two women registered for the event.

John (@NicolakPoker) Kim and Lock Pro Casey (@bigdogpckt5s) Jarzabek got into a war of words on Twitter yesterday when Kim claimed Casey lied about his bustout hand in the $1,500.

According to Kim, Jarzabek Tweeted he busted with pocket queens into pocket aces but, in reality, was eliminated by getting a little spewy with A-6.

Jarzabek responded by clarifying that he did bust with A-6 but lost the majority of chips with QQ to AA. He said it wasn’t his intention to mislead anyone and he was surprised anyone cared about a bustout hand on Day 1 of a $1,500.

Kim later said on 2+2 that this was yet another lie and Jarzabek DID lose most of his chips with A-6.

Read into the argument what you will but it’s gonna be interesting if Jarzabek and Kim are seated at the same table at some point this summer.

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